| All 50 states and the District of Columbia have immunization requirements for children entering school. In Nebraska, children can’t attend classes in public or private school until the school has written proof of their immunization status. To attend school, children in Nebraska are required to be immunized against the following diseases:
- Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis
- Polio
- Measles, mumps, and rubella
- Hepatitis B
- Varicella (chicken pox)
Each school in Nebraska is required to keep the immunization history of the students enrolled on file. Parents or guardians must present one of the following documents to the school to verify immunization status:
- An immunization record showing that the child is protected by age-appropriate immunizations.
- A statement signed by a physician that the required immunization would be injurious to the student or members of the student's family or household.
- An affidavit signed by a legally authorized representative stating that the immunization conflicts with the tenets and practices of a recognized religious denomination of which the student is a member.
THIS YEAR REPORTING WILL BE COMPLETED ONLINE
If you are unable to complete the School Immunization Report on-line, please contact the Nebraska Immunization Program at (402) 471-6423 or (800) 798-1696.
According to state statute, the board of education, school board, or governing authority shall assure that all school children are appropriately immunized prior to attending classes. Violation of these requirements is a Class V misdemeanor. Immunization requirements are not unique to Nebraska. All 50 states specify immunization and/or waiver requirements for school attendance. Reference documents can be found at: http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/Pages/immunization_forms.aspx
The Nebraska Immunization Program - School Report 2012 is due by November 15, 2012. Responses can be consolidated by district or submitted individually by school. If you have no children in the reportable groups, please complete the report with a zero in the appropriate enrollment fields.
Things to keep in mind:
1. Exemptions: For Nebraska students, there are two exemptions to the immunizations requirements that may be submitted in lieu of the required dates of immunization:
- A Medical exemption statement signed by a licensed medical physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner, stating that the specified immunization would be injurious to the student or to a member of the student’s household. This does not include chiropractic physicians.
- A notarized affidavit stating that immunization conflicts with the tenets and practices of the student’s religious beliefs.
Students with exemptions on file may need to be excluded from school if there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease.
2. Varicella (Chickenpox): If the student has not had the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine but has had the varicella (chickenpox) disease then a statement signed by a licensed medical physician, parent, or guardian must be submitted verifying the name of the student and the year in which he/she had the disease.
3. Provisional Enrollment: Most immunizations call for multiple doses of vaccine. For students who have not completed all doses required, state statute allows them to be provisionally enrolled in school if they have received at least one dose of each of the required vaccines prior to enrollment and continue to get the remaining shots as rapidly as is medically feasible. This means that school staff will need to track progress toward the completion of the required immunizations. Vaccine series do not need to be restarted if the child has a documented immunization record, even if it has been a long time since the last dose, just have the child finish the series.
Anyone who was provisionally enrolled during a previous school year must now be fully immunized or have an exemption on file before attending classes during the 2012-2013 school years. Students in grades K-12 and all out of state transfers are covered by the updated rules and regulations and should have documentation on file for 3 DTaP, 3 Polio, 2 MMR, 2 Varicella, 3 Hepatitis B doses and Seventh Graders are required to provide documentation for Tdap.
For complete information, please refer to Title 173 of the Nebraska Administrative Code, Chapter 3: Rules and Regulations Relating to School Health, Communicable Disease Control, and Physical Examination and Immunization Standards. Title 173 and other reference documents are available on the Internet: http://dhhs.ne.gov/publichealth/Pages/immunization_forms.aspx
Hooray!
The school immunization reports for 2011-2012 show that the immunization coverage level for all the kindergartners was way above the national median.
Below are forms in  PDF and  MS Word format
Summary of the School Immunization Rules and Regulations 2012-2013
Summary of the School Immunization Rules and Regulations 2013-2014
The School Record Card
Summary of the School Immunization Rules and Regulations (Spanish) 2012-2013
Summary of the School Immunization Rules and Regulations (Spanish) 2013-2014
Refusal of Immunization for Medical Reasons
Refusal of Immunization for Medical Reasons (MS Word)
Refusal of Immunization of Student for Religious Reasons
Refusal of Immunization of Student for Religious Reasons (MS Word)
Documentation of Varicella (Chicken Pox) Disease
Documentation of Varicella (Chicken Pox) Disease (MS Word)
A student can be provisionally enrolled in school if he or she has started the immunizations series and continues the necessary immunizations as rapidly as is medically possible. If the student doesn’t continue with the immunization schedule, he or she will be sent home.
The school district is required by law to report the immunization status of each school to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services yearly. The current level of school immunization is 97.06% in Nebraska.
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